FANDOM Staff Blog

I've been thinking a lot about conflict on wikis recently.
There's a wiki I've been watching (I won't name it) where it seems
everyone is fighting with everyone else. There are groups on one
side or the other of the argument, and no one is managing to calm
things down. Obviously this is affecting the productivity of the
community, as well as driving away those who can't stand the
bickering. As I tried to think of ways to help them resolve their
differences, I found a blog I wrote in 2011 that talked about how
to resolve disputes. I'd like to share it with you now.

One of the earliest wiki principles was "Assume Good Faith".
When we're disagreeing, it's easy to think the other person is
being malicious or is trying to do harm. Usually thoug…

In 2017 we redesigned the page and article headers at the top of
every wiki page as part of a more modern design experience on
FANDOM wikis. We couldn't be happier with the way it turned out,
but we knew there were a few extra steps we could take to make it
even more impactful for logged-in users.

Today we have introduced new shortcuts to the page header that
will appear for all logged-in users. These shortcuts include Add
New Image, Add New Video, Recent Changes, and All Shortcuts. The
All Shortcuts menu includes links to special pages, maintenance
lists, and other pages that can be useful to editors and admins.
You can see the placement of this new shortcuts menu here:

With the release of the new menu, we will study the engagement
data and…

So you've found your way onto FANDOM - congrats! You're in for
fun discoveries, achievements you'll be proud of, and perhaps even
new friends.

But where to start? What do you do first to make sure you get
the most out of your time here? We've put together some basic
tips.

Most wikis allow you to edit articles and post comments without
logging in, but having a FANDOM account brings you a number of
benefits. As a logged-in user, you can receive notifications about
article changes, messages and replies to your posts that you'd
otherwise miss. You have your own user page and profile that you
can customize. All your edits and posts will be associated with
your name, so you can find them again later and build a reputation
with all your great work…

In my previous blog post, I described the process of requesting
assistance from FANDOM staff to help with your wiki’s appearance.
This time, I want to talk about customizing your wiki’s theme
yourself.

I’ll start with the question: What exactly is the theme, and why
would you want to customize it yourself? Simply put, your wiki’s
theme is its overall appearance, from the background image and
wordmark to smaller things like the color of buttons and text
links. One main reason to do it yourself is knowing that you have
control of many aspects of your wiki’s appearance and can change or
tweak things whenever you want.

First and foremost, you want to ensure that every visual detail
of your wiki accurately and appropriately represents your
communi…

]] Do you want your wiki to look great, but aren’t sure how to
make it really shine? At FANDOM, we’re committed to improving the
experience of creating and managing a wiki. Part of that support is
offering expert help to wikis. I’ve been working on wikis for over
10 years, and I'm your go-to person for reviewing and fulfilling
requests for design help.

In addition to helping with custom backgrounds, wordmarks,
favicons, and redesigning home pages, I am happy to help with the
more technical aspects, such as templates and CSS.

How to submit a request

If you are an admin of the wiki, first look over the best
practices. To receive help, your wiki needs a minimum of 50 pages,
a category structure with no uncategorized pages, and a few other
requir…

One question I'm often asked is how to get more people to join a
wiki. This is not an easy question to answer, recruiting people to
your wiki can be a difficult and drawn out process, but it is
possible! Here are some tips to help you on your way.

First, think about your topic. Is it one with a big fan-base? Or
are there only a few people around who might be interested in
editing? It's also good to search for existing wikis with the same
topic (they appear on the right of the global search page) It can
be hard to get contributors if there is already an established wiki
on the topic, and hard to get high on search results too. If there
is an existing wiki, think about joining that rather than making a
new one on the same topic.

Discussions continues to be an ever-evolving part of the platform.
Though much of our product focus this year has been on Wiki
Modernization, updates continue to be made to Discussions, with
even more planned for 2018.

Here are some of the biggest updates for the rest of 2017.

Image upload

This week we’ve added image upload capabilities to all
Discussions communities across FANDOM. A few communities have had
it for a while as part of an initial test release, and we're really
thankful for their help and enthusiasm! Their feedback helped us
make some improvements and fix a few bugs, notably around the
handling of GIFs in the community apps.

Communities in the test group also did some great things with
the feature! Check out a Yu-Gi-Oh! Discussio…

This is the sixth post in a series of six about admins on
FANDOM, adapted from past posts written by Sannse.

There's some skill in being a good admin, and some pitfalls too.
So how can you avoid those pitfalls, along with the crocodiles that
are likely in the pit! Here's some thoughts on how to navigate
around them, and find your way safely across the wiki
landscape.

Wikis are accumulative. If things are working well, the smallest
start can build into a beautiful article. All you need is for
someone to make that first edit and then others to help build on
that. Wikis are never finished, there's always something more to
add, and even a little helps the wiki more forward. But sometimes
admins insist that only complete articles are added to the…

This is the fifth post in a series of six about admins on
FANDOM, adapted from past posts written by Sannse.

Today's topic was suggested by 452, and it's a good one. We've
talked about the attributes of the ideal admin, and about the best
ways to react to trolling. But between those is the best way to
react to users you dislike or are causing problems on the wiki in
ways other than simple trolling.

This is related to "Don't Feed the Trolls," but there are some
differences. Not feeding trolls is generally about not giving
feedback to those that are editing specifically to get a reaction
to their disruption. But sometimes there's more involved than that,
and sometimes your reaction is not just about not feeding, it's
also about your own effect…

This is the fourth post in a series of six about admins on
FANDOM, adapted from past posts written by Sannse.

I've given a lot of social advice to admins and to others on
FANDOM, but today I want to give admins some more practical advice
on pages to use and skills to learn. These are the top five areas
that I'd suggest any admin learn.

Wiki Activity is a useful page for getting an overview of what's
going on on a wiki, but it's not the full picture. The full details
of what's happening on any community are on Recent Changes. This
essential page lists every change on the wiki, including edits on
pages that are less often changed, like templates.

For an admin, or for any keen contributor, this page is the
starting point for understanding every…